Magic

Magic measures how well you use your magical gifts.

Magic occurs in about 1% of the population. Its distribution is mysterious; it can run in families, but it is not guaranteed that one person is Awakened even if their identical twin is. Out of every 10,000 people, statistically:

• 9,850 are unAwakened.
• 108 are sparks and are able to do something extraordinary.
  • 8 of these are explorers, who can project their consciousness to the astral plane.
• 8 are adepts who channel their magic into their own bodies.
• 8 are sorcerers, who can cast spells.
• 8 are conjurers, who can summon spirits.
• 8 are enchanters, who can enchant foci and perform alchemy.
• 10 are either full magicians, capable of sorcery, conjuring, enchanting, and astral projection; or mystic adepts, capable of sorcery, conjuring, enchanting, and focusing mana into their own bodies like adepts.

Magical ability is deeply connected to a character’s inner being, and always has a character aspect associated with it; if the character isn’t a Spark, it must be in their High Concept. Magician concepts include Combat Mage, Street Shaman, Healer-Wizard, Occult Investigator, and Radical Eco-Shaman. Adept concepts include Mystic Kung Fu Sifu, Magic Brawler, Eldritch Sneak Thief, Gunslinger Adept, and Arcane Quarterback.

These gifts generally fall into two paths: magicians, who manipulate external mana and do things like casting spells and conjuring spirits; and adepts, who manipulate it internally and perform feats of athletics, martial arts, and artistic performance. The rare mystic adepts partake of both natures, though are hard pressed to keep up with the specialists. Adepts with combat abilities can add their Magic to appropriate combat rolls. Anyone with a Magic Edge is capable of some amount of ritual magic.

There are many traditions who have an understanding of magic, and they fall into two categories: those whose outlook is based in rules and patterns,, and those whose outlook is based on intuition. The most common of the rational magicians are called Hermetic mages; the most common of the intuitive are called shamans. Either way, magic is an activity that requires both sides of the brain; even the most rational Hermetic mage still needs their intuition to work with magic, and even the wildest shaman needs a framework on which to think about how to use magic well. There is a similar dichotomy among adepts, though it is not as pronounced. (The popular trideo show The Odd Coven has a finicky Hermetic mage and a slob of a Coyote shaman as roommates.)

Magical folk often have an eerie quality to them; the magic running through their bodies creates a subliminal impression on even unAwakened people they meet. From a game mechanics perspective this means that your Magic – Heart score, if better than Mediocre (+0), can unconsciously act as a social attack to people around you. This can be mitigated somewhat by meditating until you are Going With the Flow, Omnibenevolent, or in some other appropriate state. People who routinely encounter such folk do build up a tolerance.

Magic and Essence

Standard Shadowrun uses Essence as a hard limit on the amount of chrome you can put in your body. In Fate, we’re using stunts as the limiting factor, so Essence is a matter of relative position: when two Awakened characters are in conflict, the one with lower Chrome adds the difference in Chrome to their rolls. The difference is not perceptible when one Awakened character faces off against an unAwakened one.

If you have no stunts spent on magic, you are a spark, with one magical talent and the option of being able to astrally perceive. Decide at character generation if you are fully trained or not:

• If fully trained, you can be initiated and have access to metamagics like masking, divination, and necromancy, but you can never spend refresh on becoming an adept or magician. This can be very handy for High Concepts like Occult Investigator. You can have one metamagic with Magic +1 or four with Magic +2.
• If not fully trained, you have the potential to spend future refresh on unlocking your potential, as long as that matches your existing talent. If your talent is an adept power, you can only become an adept or mystic adept.

Spark talents tend to boil down to intuitively cast one spell or use one adept feat. Sample spark talents:

• Animal Magnetism: you can project emotions to someone in the same zone with Prod + Magic.
• Borrowed Sense: you have one borrowed sense, thanks to close connection to a being with that sense— learning enhanced smell from your dog, thermographic vision from your troll best friend.
• Deepsense: you can use Spot + Magic to sense the structure and texture beneath the surface of an object; difficulty is the object resistance. This can be handy for woodworkers, sculptors, surgeons, and more.
• Enchanted Artist: you can create enchanted art.
• Explorer: in addition to astral perception, you can astrally project. (Forbidden Arcana p47)
• Evil Eye: roll Prod + Magic to put a Cursed boost on someone, or a full aspect if you succeed with style. This is not a spell, per se; more of an astral tainting that either wears off or is removed through a purification ritual.
• Green Thumb: you can roll Heart + Magic to know the needs of plants and how best to care for them.
• Null: Able to astrally perceive, perform spell defense, counterspelling, banish, disenchant, and use reflection metamagics. (Forbidden Arcana p43)
• Healer: you have one of the healing adept abilities like Laying On of Hands or Chi Healing.
• Healthreader: you can roll Heart + Magic to sense a being’s state of health and what’s wrong with them, much like the Diagnose spell (Street Grimoire p107).
• Heartreader: you can roll Heart + Magic to sense someone’s emotional state. This is similar to one of the uses of assensing, but does not require astral perception.
• Hollow Leg: you can eat up to Bod + Magic days’ worth of food and not need to eat again until you’ve metabolized it all. Don’t go into a mana void while this trick is active.
• Memory Palace: you can use Brains + Magic for feats of memorization, and can perform Divination with it if you initiate.
• Shifter: you can shapeshift into one type of mundane animal no smaller than a cat and no larger than a bear, tiger, or horse, and revert to your panhuman form when unconscious (unless you have a sustaining focus). Your clothing and equipment do not shift with you.
• Truthfinder: you can look someone in the eye and roll Prod + Magic to compel them to tell the truth. Similar to Compel Truth (SG p114)
• Truthreader: you can roll Heart + Magic to sense if someone is attempting to deceive you. Drain is the same as Analyze Truth (SR5 p286).

Any spark with astral perception can learn the Warding ritual, and many sparks have day jobs setting wards and calling in whenever they notice one being triggered. Astral perception is also a fast ticket to a job as a security guard, and trained medical assensors get paid almost as much as doctors.

Sorcery is the technique of shaping mana into astral constructs called spells. Regular spells last as long as they are sustained by being fed mana, whether from the caster, a focus, a spirit, or a metamagical quickening. Spells affect things that the caster can directly sense through sight or touch; ranges are either self only, touch, or line of sight. Line of sight works through windows, binoculars, and even fiber optics, but not through any form of image processing.

Shaping mana into a spell at combat speeds requires an entire round, even if you have superhuman reflexes. Magicians with the extra action stunt can spend them on the actions of their conjured spirits.

Sustaining a spell is a supplemental action. Every time you exceed your Magic in sustained spells, everything else you’re doing gains +1 difficulty (so with Magic +2, you can sustain two spells and only have to worry about what the opposition will do with that boost). If you devote an action to a sustained spell that creates an advantage, its aspect gains a free invoke.

The study of magic has revealed that even mundane objects have an aura. Things that grew naturally have the strongest ones; things worked intentionally by conscious artificers have less; those assembled by a machine even less; and highly complex substances assembled through complicated mechanical processes have almost no aura for a spell to latch onto. This means that modern objects are extremely difficult to understand and manipulate through their aura. (This does not apply to simple workings like levitation.) This is termed object resistance:

e.g.: It is much easier to use the Fashion spell to tailor garments if they’re hand-woven natural cotton with drawstrings than it is if they’re factory-made garments with elastic. It’s even harder if the garments have spime tags that tell a modern washing machine what settings to use.

Spellcasting can be compared to music: each art is like an instrument, and each spell is like a song. Learning arts takes a while, but you can improvise with them once you’ve learned them well. Being able to throw a spell in a matter of seconds requires regular rehearsal. Depending on your tradition, if you already know the relevant art, you can roll to see if your character has been practicing a particular spell lately; this will usually be Brains+Magic for logical traditions and Schmooze+Magic for intuitive ones.

Sorcerers usually have at least one fidget that exerts tiny amounts of mana and gives them feedback on their current level of control, which can vary with both inner turmoil and astral conditions. Pick a fidget for your character, such as precipitating a drop of water from the air, flicking a thumb to produce a flame like a cigarette lighter, popping a single kernel of popcorn, forming a fragile bubble of pure mana that reacts to astral influences, turning your beer bottle into glass marbles.

Spells are either mana (in which case they affect astral beings and living auras) or physical (they create or alter something tangible). Mana spells cast by astrally projecting sorcerers can only affect astrally active targets, such as spirits, dual-natured beings, and active foci. Physically embodied sorcerers can cast mana spells on living beings as well as manifest and materialized astral entities.

Arts

Sorcerers know a number of arts equal to twice their Brains+Magic in logical traditions and twice their Schmooze+Magic in intuitive traditions.

• Mana. This includes mana and power and stun attack spells, physical and astral armor, mana and physical barriers (yes, you can drive your car over a bridge of opaque, turbulent mana), analysis of magic and auras and the astral plane, and even analyzing or reinforcing metaphysical identity to make an object decay more slowly or resist damage. Stun bolts (mana disrupting consciousness) feel a lot like getting tased, mana bolts (mana disrupting life) feel agonizing as they cause cellular dieoff in patterns like Lichtenberg figures, and power bolts (mana disrupting matter) feel like being seared from the inside. All three ignore armor. Touch-range mana attack spells like Death Touch are rarely used in combat, but are superbly effective at killing weeds all the way down to the taproot. Stun and Mana attacks target Focus; Power attacks target Bod.
• Force. Also known as telekinesis. This includes clout attacks, Magic Fingers, Levitate (which allows you to use Move+Magic to move while it’s sustained).
• The elements are each an Art. They can conjure temporary matter that lasts as long as the spell is sustained, and manipulate matter that’s already there. Once you‘ve learned one element, each successive one only requires half the effort. Elemental attacks target Move, have as many red dice as the caster has Magic Edge, and the target’s blue dice apply.
  • Fire: includes direct manifestations of fire, as well as heat.
  • Ice: includes direct manifestations of ice, as well as cold. Conjured ice vanishes when the spell stops being sustained; ice precipitated from the air sticks around. Theorists argue a lot about where the entropy goes when a spell freezes something.
  • Lightning: primarily about lightning bolts and St. Elmo’s Fire, but it can be tuned to provide DC voltages. Alternating current does not occur in nature and the even the most enthusiastic MIT&T undergrads have not yet worked out how to produce a magical Zeusaphone.
  • Wind: gusts of wind and even thunderclaps.
  • Water: water, rain, and fog.
  • Earth: shaping earth and stone; sandblasting enemies.
  • Acid: evoking the magical qualities of places like crater lakes atop volcanoes, this is similar to the Water art, but with a pH of 0.1.
  • Radiation: only toxic mages— who are insane in a variety of ways— know this art, and there are no works that teach it. It is commonly believed that learning it would turn someone into a toxic mage.
  • Pollution: another art only known by toxic mages.
  Elements can be combined in complex spells, such as Napalm, which mixes Fire and Water.
• Light: the sensing and manipulation of light, including clairvoyance and invisibility. The further it gets from phenomena found on the surface of the Earth, the harder it is to manipulate; creating radio-frequency noise is practical, causing blindness with UVC or radiation sickness with X-rays is not.
• Sound: the sensing and control of vibrations, from thunder to silence to clairaudience.
• Animation. Temporary reshaping of objects.
• Shaping. Permanent operations on the metaphysical underpinnings of an object’s shape, such as bonding two surfaces together or retailoring clothing. Elemental magic works on pure elements, while this works on complex substances.
• Shifting. Temporary transformations. While mostly used for shapeshifting or the infamous Turn To Goo spell, a sophisticated spell can create temporary incisions that close up perfectly when the spell is no longer sustained, which is a very fast way to deal with kidney stones and the like. Shapeshifting normally turns you into you as an X, so if you are tall and skinny and turn into a cat, you are a long skinny cat. Shapeshifting as disguise is possible, but costs much more stress, and requires a clay doll prepared by an artist taking a week to work using reference photos, or using ritual magic and a material link to the target. Shifting does not transform clothing and equipment.
• Health. Healing and harming the bodies of beings with nervous systems. No one has yet come up with a way to cast a health spell without touching the target, though gloves can be worn.
• Plant. Healing and harming organisms that lack the complexity to have a nervous system. This can grow plants and mushrooms at unnatural rates.
• Mind. Interacting at the level of thought.
• Illusion. Interacting at the level of sensation, including a different kind of invisibility from Light.

Observed limits on magic: Magic cannot return the dead to life. Magic cannot teleport matter, or energy, from one location to another instantaneously. Magic cannot break time. Magic cannot restore mental exhaustion, or heal damage caused by Drain, or cure psychological conditions.

Casting Spells

Casting spells is a matter of rolling the appropriate skill for the spell, plus your Magic Edge. Does the spell harm the target? Hit. Bamboozle them? Con. Heal them? Heart. Hide you from them? Sneak. Mess with their brain? Prod. Give you information? Recon. The Force of your spell is the skill (plus Edge) with which you cast it.

The difficulty of casting depends on the spell. If it’s a living target, it’s usually their Focus+Magic, +Chrome if the spell is attempting to heal or transform them. If it’s attempting to alter a nonliving object, it’s the object resistance. If it’s attempting to move something, it’s based on the size.

Casting spells costs mental stress, called Drain; the Drain is based on the Force. You can lower the Force, making the spell less powerful, and add the shifts either to the outcome (if successful), representing finesse, or the difficulty of noticing the spell (which is normally a Spot+Magic against Mediocre (0)).

–1	Direct touch-range combat spells. Health spells that create an advantage, but must be sustained for (Force) actions to take permanent effect.
+0	Direct ranged combat spells like Mana Bolt, Power Bolt, Stun Bolt. Mana spells that create an advantage on a single target, but must be sustained to maintain it. Mana spells that allow exerting a skill, such as Entertainment.
+1	Indirect ranged combat spells with elemental effects. Physical spells that create an advantage on a single target, but must be sustained to maintain it. Physical spells that allow exerting a skill, such as Magic Fingers or Trid Entertainment.
+2	Direct ranged area-effect combat spells like Mana Ball, Power Ball, Stun Ball. Area effect mana spells that create an advantage, but must be sustained to maintain it. Single target physical spells that create a lasting advantage.
+3	Indirect ranged area-effect combat spells like Fireball. Area effect physical spells that create an advantage, but must be sustained to maintain it.
+4	Area effect physical spells that create a lasting advantage.

Drain is somewhat variable: the first two dice from your spellcasting roll are applied to your Focus+Magic, and any Force in excess of that is applied to your mental stress track, and then your physical stress track when your mental stress track is full. (If you can use Prod to inflict mental stress on a mage before combat, that will leave them with fewer mental reserves to focus on spellcasting.) So if you roll ++--, while your outcome on the spell is 0, you take two less Drain than if you rolled 0000.

Improvising simple spells is possible outside of combat, at a cost of +2 stress. (Use Shaping magic to fix a seam is feasible; recreating the Fashion spell requires significant research.) Improvising in the middle of a firefight is possible with a Focus+Magic check equal to the best skill on the opposing side, but your chummers need to hold off the opposition for several actions so you can concentrate (roll your Brains+Magic or Schmooze+Magic to make inroads on a stress track).

Particulars on certain spells:

• Heal: the difficulty of casting it is the size of the consequence (in stress boxes) to be healed, plus the target’s Chrome. On a tie, it begins the recovery process. On a success, in addition to the mental stress, it also turns the physical consequence on the target into an exhaustion consequence on the caster. On a success with style, the extra shifts of success reduce the size of the consequence, and the caster’s Winded and Weary conditions can be substituted for minor and moderate consequences.
• Mind Probe: the target must be conscious and will experience the memories probed. Due to the direct mind-to-mind connection, the caster takes a psychological consequence based on how deeply they probed: if they only look for surface thoughts (requires beating the subject’s Focus by 1), they get a mild consequence of one of the target’s neuroses— or, if principled, a moral drive. If they seek conscious knowledge and recent memories (success by 2), they take a moderate consequence. If they delve for subconscious knowledge (requires success with style), they take a serious one. If the subject is cooperating, they can reduce the scale of the consequence by one.

Spell Defense

There are two kinds of defensive sorcery: spell defense, where a sorcerer extends their magical defenses over their allies, and counterspelling, which stops a spell before it lands.

To apply spell defense, a sorcerer must be conscious enough to pay attention to their allies. They can provide such defense for up to Spot+Magic people with whom they’ve had some time to become magically familiar. Those allies can use the sorcerer’s Magic to defend against an attack in place of any of their own Edges.

Counterspelling requires line of sight to the opposing spellcaster, or astral perception, and it requires an action to unmake the spell in flight. It’s a Spot+Magic roll against the opposing spellcaster’s roll.

Learning Spells

Spells can be taught directly, or encoded into a formula, or an artistic performance. It is possible to make something that serves as formula and artistic performance if you’re really good, even one that makes sense to multiple traditions. An artistic performance of a spell can be a painting, a statue, a poem, a dance, a song, an entire album for a complex spell, a story ranging from microfiction to a novel. It’s common for music to be performed acoustically, to facilitate learning it from a live performance, but if it's just going to be recorded anyway, a synthwave album is just as good as an acoustic one. Some albums and stories that start out as spell formulae become quite popular. If the formula has to do something else (e.g. a cooking recipe that also has to result in a tasty dish), that makes it more difficult to produce the formula and to learn it, but that doesn't stop people from having competitions that result in cookbooks.

Original manuscripts and hand copies (performed by a sorcerer) are obviously of magical significance to astral perception, and face import and export restrictions in many jurisdictions.

There are many glosses written on classic works of art, music, and literature that claim to point out spell formulae encoded in them. In some cases, most magicians agree that the classic did contain the spell formula (such as the Battle of the Trees), while in others, they agree that the spell formula is really in the gloss and not the original (such as The Teachings of Don Juan).

Learning a spell is a full-time job that usually takes about twelve days for a spell that stretches the limits of your understanding. You need a magical lodge in your tradition in which to rehearse it. If time matters, roll Brains+Magic if you’re from a logical tradition or Face+Magic if you’re from an intuitive tradition against the quality of your source:

1	Full-time tutoring from an in-person instructor.
2	Original or hand-copied manuscript of an eloquently expressed formula, which you can assense.
3	Half an hour of attention per day from an in-person instructor; they need only be astrally present. Printout of a mechanicaly copy of a formula with handwritten marginalia you can assense.
4	Mechanical copy of the formula.
–2	Have learned the spell before.
+1	Instructor or formula is from a related tradition (e.g. Gardnerian Wicca and Hermetic magic).
+1	Adequately expressed formula
+2	Instructor or formula has a matching logical/intuitive approach.
+2	Sloppily expressed formula.
+3	Reconstructing from memory without a formula.
+4	Instructor or formula is from a different approach.
+4	Formula author has lost touch with ordinary reality.

Sorcerers need some way to record their spells for study if they don’t practice them in a lodge on a regular basis. Mechanical copies of spell formulas can be backed up easily, but they’re the least effective form to study.

Conjuring is the art of dealing with spirits.

Summoning a spirit is a Prod + Magic roll as a conflict with the spirit (which rolls its Force). This can represent invitation or compulsion.

You can summon any spirit of your tradition in your own lodge, with appropriate preparation (such as a hermetic mage lighting a brazier for a fire elemental, or a shaman bringing in street food to summon a city spirit); this takes at least a minute.

Outside your lodge, you have to have access to the spirit’s domain, but you can do a fast summoning that only takes a single action. A hermetic mage can’t summon an earth elemental on board an airplane in flight, but if they get thrown out the cargo hatch, they can summon an air elemental on the way down. A hermetic mage can summon an air elemental in an alley, but a shaman has to go to the roof or the middle of the street to get a spirit of the sky.

On a tie, the spirit shows up and will perform one service; every shift after that grants two more services. Whether or not the services are used, they expire the next time the sun crosses the horizon.

When a spirit first shows up, it is purely astral, and appears to mundane senses as a shimmer in the air, much like a mirage; the difficulty of noticing an astral spirit making no effort to hide is Good (+3) – Force. Manifesting to transparent visibility and audibility only takes mild effort on the spirit’s part and can be part of any task where it’s asked to report in. Materializing to opaque solidity requires serious effort.

For each point of Force in excess of 1, the spirit may have one power from its Optional Powers list. Getting particular optional powers is a bit hit-and-miss at first, but a conjurer can get to know particular spirits, and might even get on good terms with them.

Whether or not the summoning was successful, the conjurer takes mental stress equal to double the spirit’s Force, modified by the spirit’s roll in the summoning conflict, less the conjurer’s Focus + Magic.

Taking a few minutes of preparation, such as a hermetic mage drawing a diagram in chalk on the sidewalk, can create advantages that can be tagged in a summoning. Burning high-quality tobacco and liquor can also help attract a spirit’s attention, so if your buddy takes the spirit’s Force as an attack against their Scrounge, they can create an advantage for you.

Example: Ricky the Rat Shaman (Focus 3, Prod 3, Magic 2) is backed into a corner and summons a Great (+4) City Spirit to defend him. He rolls a +1 (getting a 6) and the spirit rolls a +2 (also getting a 6), so the spirit shows up for a single service. Ricky marks off 5 mental stress (2×4 + 2 – (3+2)) as the spirit wades into the fight on his behalf.

Summoning creates a metaphysical connection that allows the conjurer to communicate telepathically with the spirit. The loss of the link is noticeable if the spirit is banished or disrupted; whether a spirit tells you when someone starts banishing it is up to the spirit.

If a spirit is summoned in a lodge, it can be forcibly bound using Focus + Magic in a ritual that takes 2 hours per point of Force of the spirit. In this case, the spirit’s roll goes against your mental and wealth stress tracks, representing both the effort and the cost of reagents consumed in the ritual. A service from the summoning is used up getting it to stick around for the binding, but leftover services from the summoning are added to those obtained by the binding. A bound spirit must come when called, and can be forced to do things that it would find harmful. Paying one point of Karma per point of Force of a bound spirit can bind them to a service permanently, such as providing astral patrolling until banished or killed in astral combat.

A spirit can also be bargained with to enter into a voluntary contract. It can take hours of careful negotiation with an unfamiliar spirit, or mere minutes with a friendly one. This uses Face + Magic and only affects your wealth stress track; you might be paying them with reagents, or by some other means such as taking them to a concert or ballet, or even karma. Spirits find karma quite valuable and may take extended contracts for it.

Whether they are created through bargaining or binding, a conjurer can only maintain as many spirit contracts as they have Schmooze + Magic. A spirit contract formalized with karma doesn’t count against this total, but the spirit is on a job, not on call.

An artistic magician can substitute Rock + Magic for both summoning and bargaining. (This means acoustic instruments if it’s musical.) You can get cooperation bonuses from mundane musicians in this. This only costs you time (minutes, at a minimum), not stress, though you can certainly take wealth stress hiring Backup Musicians to tag when you roll.

Banishing attempts to force a spirit to go home. It is unpleasant for a spirit, though not as painful as being disrupted in astral combat, and they tend to be pretty cranky if you try to summon them immediately after banishing them out from under another conjurer’s control. This is a conflict of Focus + Magic with the spirit’s Force (plus its conjurer’s Magic, if bound or contracted). Every shift of success removes two services from the spirit, and if that goes to zero, the spirit departs on its next action. Stress cost is the same as for conjuring.

Unbinding a spirit is much more risky. It only works against bound spirits, and operates much like banishing, but uses Crime + Magic to dismantle the magical underpinnings of the spirit contract; the intricacy of lockpicking and sleight of hand is good mental preparation for learning the technique. While unbinding, you have a telepathic connection to the spirit and can attempt to persuade it as a supplemental action. When the spirit’s services drop to zero, it could go home, attack its original conjurer, attack its liberator, go berserk and attack everyone, or stay in this world and depart on an unknown agenda at astral-fast speeds. While a conjurer will immediately notice if one of their spirits is banished or disrupted, unbinding is subtle. Usually, an unbound spirit remains in the world until the next time the sun crosses the horizon (clever ones can flee to the Arctic or Antarctic circles to evade this requirement), though in rare cases they become Free Spirits. Use of this technique (termed unleashing in the official literature) can be charged as felonious reckless endangerment in most jurisdictions. Unbinding only costs stress when the roll fails, in which case the unbinder takes as many shifts of mental stress as they missed the roll by. Summoning a spirit after unbinding it is not seen as rude by the spirits.

Fettering is a minor form of binding; it’s a resisted Focus+Magic roll. The difficulty is the spirit’s Force plus half the number of remaining services. On a tie, the spirit is stuck within its Force in meters of a particular object for one action. Extra shifts can increase duration (rest of the scene, an hour, rest of the day on success with style) or decrease the radius the spirit can roam (–2m per shift). Spirits find this much more friendly than being banished or disrupted (as long as you didn’t use it to drown a fire elemental or somesuch). (Street Wyrd p63)

Spirit Services

Things you can ask a summoned spirit to do:

• Fight at your side or on your behalf in combat. This service lasts for the scene, and uses the player’s actions. If you do not have Extra Action, directing the spirit requires your character’s entire attention.
• Use a power. A sustained power only counts as one service for the entire duration. Using a power as part of another service (such as combat) doesn’t count as a separate service.
• Perform a physical task. The spirit goes to the effort to materialize and do something in the material world.
• Remote service. If this takes the spirit outside your Magic × 300m, all outstanding services lapse. Any city spirit can handle see these children safely home.

You can ask a contracted spirit to do any of the above, plus:

• Aid Alchemy, Sorcery, or Study: as a service, the spirit can add to one roll for spellcasting (including ritual spellcasting), alchemy, or arcane studies (including the do I know that spell? roll if this spirit could plausibly have been helping you the last time you had a chance to practice a spell— you can retroactively use services that way). If its Force is less than your skill to learn the spell, it adds +1; if it’s at least equal, it adds +2; if it’s double, it adds +3 (and so on).

You can tell a bound spirit to do any of the above, plus:

• Spell sustaining: you can hand off a spell you cast to any spirit whose Force is at least equal to the skill you used to cast the spell. Since they lack a body to channel mana through, this is quite painful for the spirit. One service is good for twice the spirit’s Force in actions spent sustaining the spell.
• Spell binding: sustaining a spell for days on end. This causes permanent harm to the spirit, making it lose a point of Force every three days. Word gets around the spirit world fast when you do this, and you can wind up with a very adversarial relationship with spirits.

While you have your metaphysical connection to a summoned spirit, you can spend Fate on its behalf.

Mana collects in physical objects, most easily from natural processes, and those that have enough mana that they can be turned into something of practical utility are termed reagents (SR5 p316, Street Grimoire p209, Street Magic p79, Parabotany p46). They can be gathered in the wild by anyone with astral perception, which almost always results in reagents of raw quality. Raw reagents can be turned into refined ones with a sunrise-to-sunset (or vice versa) circulation by an enchanter. Refined reagents can be turned into radical ones with a lunar-cycle circulation that needs tending every 8 hours by an enchanter.

Reagents can be used to fuel magical operations of all sorts, and well-chosen ones can be bribes for spirits. Some operations, such as artificing, require radical reagents.

A talismonger sells magical goods, and enchanters are often talismongers.

Alchemy

Alchemy operates much like spellcasting, but the spell (formulated for alchemical use, and learned separately from the sorcerous version) goes into a preparation. Creating the preparation costs the same mental stress as casting the spell; in addition, it costs wealth stress (against your Scrounge+Magic). If there’s no story need to create the preparation on camera, simply roll for retroactive creation and take the wealth stress, though the GM may call for a roll to explain how you would have anticipated the current circumstance. Preparations can take the form of liquids, poultices, unguents, incense sticks, pastilles, candles, even candies. (The processes of dissolving sugar into cream, butter, or distilled water; concentrating it; and crystallizing the sugar are very amenable to enchanting processes.)

Preparations can be triggered in three ways:

• Command: the creator has line of sight on the physical or astral plane and wills the preparation to activate. This is the only trigger that can be used on healing spells.
• Contact: the next living aura to touch the preparation activates it. Someone wearing boots and stepping on a painted preparation would trigger it; someone on stilts or rollerblades would not. Putting a highly concentrated preparation in a hollow-point bullet is not effective (the stresses on the bullet are too much for the magic), but it can work in an arrowhead.
• Time: a countdown that starts when the preparation is created. Magical timing usually relies on astrological events like the disc of the Sun touches the horizon and is accurate to about two minutes.

Creating the preparation is a roll of your Make+Magic against the relevant Skill+Magic for the spell. For each shift, the preparation will last your Magic in hours outside of a Vault of Ages. An enchanter is presumed to have a small Vault in their field kit, though attempting to take one through a ward may dispel the effect.

To astral perception, preparations are obviously magical, much like an inactive focus.

Medicine

Ayurveda, Chinese herbology, homeopathy, and the like are effective treatments when administered by a trained enchanter. (Mechanically, they need a character aspect reflecting their training as a healer.) They can roll Brains + Magic to devise treatments (creating advantages for themselves) and Heart + Magic to administer them, either Overcoming a consequence to start the recovery process, or Creating Advantages for their subject. (Augmentation p123)

Biodynamic agriculture is effective in restoring the health of the land.

Enchanted Art

The principles of enchantment can be applied to many varieties of art. For instance, alchemical mixology (Street Grimoire p212) combines artisanal liquors and herbal extracts to produce drinks that induce a temporary magical effect. This uses Make + Magic to create an advantage; magical cocktails lose their potency in about half an hour. Employing enchanters to handle the fermentation and distillation of liquors leads to more potent beverages that can last for days, at considerably greater expense. But if that alchemical hot toddy can give you the push that knocks out that miserable cold, isn’t it worth 800¥? Similarly, alchemical brewing of tea and coffee results in a magically potent beverage.

Alchemical fireworks can put on a spectacular display and are prized by spirits, particularly those hailing from the Metaplane of Fire.

Alchemical tattooing is the precursor to actual enchanted tattoos. It requires magically prepared inks and an enchanter-tattooist to wield the needle. Mechanically, take a fractal aspect like Spectacular Body Art and have each tattoo as a sub-aspect. Getting a tattoo of a particular spirit can help you summon them.

Foci

Foci are enchanted items, created through artificing that are bound to a single user; astral tracking can track a focus to its wielder, and the wielder can track the focus. Using a focus requires spending a supplemental action activating it, which gives it an astral presence. This is very noticeable to astrally perceiving beings; they only need a roll to notice an active focus if there are significant distractions.

Even if its wielder is not astrally perceiving, an activated focus can be attacked in astral combat; a simple Overcome action (against 3× the number of stunts for that one focus) will deactivate the focus until the wielder takes an action reactivating it. Success with Style delays that by one more round, and every two additional shifts delays it one round beyond that. The wielder of the focus feels it immediately when the focus is deactivated.

If the wielder is astrally active, the focus can still be attacked as a called shot, but its wielder defends with Move+Magic or Hit+Magic.

If you activate foci before you astrally project, their astral forms come with you. If they are deactivated while you’re out of your body, you must go back to your body to reactivate it.

Magical foci are restricted equipment, requiring permits, though the paperwork for a healing focus is a lot easier (you just have to agree to report serious injuries to the authorities) than one for a weapon focus. Licensed bodyguards in good standing find the paperwork for weapon foci straightforward.

Foci are bought as stunts; one stunt can represent multiple foci, or a single item enchanted as a combined focus (in which case it only takes one action to activate all of its abilities). You can safely activate as many refresh worth of foci as you have Magic, and your Magic is the limit on each of the benefits you can get on any one roll from foci (shifts of effect, red or blue dice, mitigation of penalties, shifts of reduced Drain).

• Power Focus: helps you channel mana. One refresh is worth a +1 to resist all forms of Drain.
• Conjuring Focus: helps you channel energy into the ineffable pneuma that rewards spirits for services. One refresh is worth two shifts of extra services.
• Banishing Focus: gives 2 extra shifts of effect when banishing spirits.
• Unbinding Focus: gives 2 extra shifts of effect when unbinding spirits. Illegal in most jurisdictions, and use of one is an extra felony charge on top of the reckless endangerment for using the technique in the first place.
• Defense Focus: increases the number of people you can protect with spell defense.
• Qi Focus: adepts only. When the focus is activated, the adept gains a feat. One refresh is worth one stunt, two feats, four red dice worth of Critical Strike, or four blue dice worth of Mystic Armor. The adept does not need to be enhancing the associated skill for the qi focus’ feat. Unlike all other foci, qi foci can be created as magical tattoos and ritual scarification. A qi focus’ red or blue dice cannot take you over the limit of your Magic Edge.
• Sustaining Focus: sustains a spell for you so you don’t take penalties for being distracted. One refresh is worth two sustained spells.
• Weapon Focus: when the focus is activated, it gains an astral presence and can hurt spirits, who are immune to mundane weapons. One refresh is worth four red dice; you can use as many weapon focus red dice as you have points of Magic. If your Hit is better than your Focus, you can use Hit+Magic in astral combat.
• Filtering Focus: (invented in the Havens in 2052) One refresh ignores 4 points of background count. On at least three -, the filter clogs and requires an action to purge.

Example foci

• Flaming Sword (2): combination weapon (++) and qi focus (Aura of Menace and Elemental Weapon). Since a sword is already +++, this means your strikes are ++ with an extra shift of stress whenever you hit. Lighting up the sword is enough to prevent many fights.
• Guardian Staff (1): combination weapon (++) and qi focus that provides Mystic Armor (--) when activated.
• Strong Medicine (1): qi focus tattoos of Rapid Healing and Laying On of Hands.
• Vigilant Vambrace (1): a hammered brass bracelet qi focus that provides Mystic Armor (--) and Motion Sense.
• Enchanted Tarot deck (1): this gadget is a 78 card Tarot deck, with a Function aspect like Thelemic Tarot Deck and a Flaw aspect of Very Expensive. This gives 2 extra shifts worth of services when summoning spirits that match the deck’s symbolism (thus usable by Hermetic mages), and 2 extra shifts when performing divination with the deck. Note that creating one of these requires 16 weeks of effort from an artist-enchanter who has already completed the initiatory ordeal of creating the master paintings of their own Tarot deck, so its value is, at the very least, Fantastic (+6), so be careful about flashing it around. A partial deck is only good for 1 shift in summoning if you have an appropriate card for the spirit you’re dealing with, and useless for divination.

Adepts channel their magic into their bodies to become extraordinary.

Mystic adepts are magicians who have channeled a portion of their magic into their bodies. This bars them from astral projection, and as initiates they cannot enter the metaplanes without assistance (such as a Free Spirit exercising the Astral Gateway power). They can only perceive the astral plane if they have the appropriate Adept feat.

They call it the astral plane because you can see the stars even during the day. If you look at the sky just right, you can even see the constellations... but if you’re in China, you might see the Twenty-Eight Mansions instead of the Twelve Houses. The physical world is a shadowy, vague place, save for living and enchanted things, which appear vivid and bright, as if well-lit. The Sun and Moon are just discs in the sky, but the living Earth radiates light to see by. Emotional residue from living auras can cling to objects, and it’s easy to tell an original wedding ring from a perfect forgery. The written word is just a blur on the page; an impassioned handwritten note might carry an emotional residue, but printed books only have them if well-read. The only sound there is produced by living intention; the spoken word and live acoustic music are audible and infused with emotion, while anything from wind chimes to a public address system to a 19th century player piano are silent.

Assensing through a periscope or binoculars is slower and trickier than doing it with the naked eye; it requires focusing with mundane sight, establishing the fact of perception, then switching to astral sight. It works best with stationary or slow-moving targets.

Astral forms can pass through living things, though it may cause a shudder. The unAwakened can roll Spot to notice if an astral form has passed through their own; the Awakened roll Spot+Magic.

Astral Perception

When someone opens up their perceptions to the astral plane, they are said to be astrally perceiving, and when they use those senses to investigate auras, they are assensing. To sighted people, the astral plane usually manifests visually, but it enters your awareness in the way that your brain maps the world.

A person’s aura matches their self-image, not their body. If a person is in disguise, their aura will usually show their true self, and they may be hard to recognize with mundane sight. On the other hand, a really good method actor (who Succeeds with Style on their Con) can convince themselves of their role so thoroughly that their aura matches their disguise.

Spells, potions, wards, and the powers of critters, spirits, and adepts all have distinctive astral signatures, and these can linger for hours after they have ceased. Anyone using astral perception can clean up signatures; it takes one action to hasten the fading by one hour. Matching of astral signatures is considered expert witness testimony in most courts. Astral signatures can be tracked with Recon+Magic, though every three hours elapsed since the signature was energized adds +1 to the difficulty of tracking, as does the Force of any ward or mana barrier in the way. Conjurers leave their signatures on spirits.

The astral plane is very distracting, and all mundane tasks are at +1 difficulty while astrally perceiving. (Hand-to-hand combat with a living being does not qualify for this penalty; hand-to-hand combat with a robot does.) The eyes of an assensor are usually unfocused, and even making an effort to look someone in the eye while carrying on a conversation gives them the impression you’re looking deep into them.

Spells, wards, and astrally active beings and objects appear more than well-lit; they seem to glow from within.

Astral perception is a risk, as it renders you dual-natured, present on both planes: ephemeral spirits suddenly become tangible to the person, and vice versa. Wards you could walk through while purely physical will push back, and shoving your way through them will alert their creator.

Astral Projection

A small number of Awakened are able to move their consciousness out of their bodies onto the astral plane; this is called astral projection and it defies neurological understanding, as the brainwaves of the body match the slowest of slow-wave sleep. They can spend hours, even (with training) days out of their body, but must eventually return to restore their energies or disintegrate. Astral projection uses up one mental stress box for two full hours; once you return to your body, that stress clears as fast as you acquired it.

Astral travel can be as fast as thought. 100 meters per action is like walking; 5km per action (about 6000kph) is like running. You can get to the antipodes in a little over an hour. Gravity is not a constraint. The hard borders are the living earth (which is largely solid, though it is possible to move through it very slowly) and the stratopause, the boundary beyond which even bacteria do not live, 50–55km up. Going into the mana void above the stratopause invites madness and death, as the astral form is like a balloon in a vacuum.

Astral projectors can manifest to make themselves hazily visible and audible to living beings, but machines sense nothing. People with cybereyes can see manifest people and spirits; people watching the same place through a camera feeding data to their cyberLink see nothing. Manifesting costs one point of mental stress per five minutes; that stress does not refresh until you return to your body.

Astral projection is an even bigger risk than astral perception, as an untenanted body can be easily possessed by wandering spirits. Some only take the body for a joyride and bail out when the body becomes boring due to fatigue, but others will fight to keep possession of a corporeal form, or ransom them back in exchange for karma or other considerations. Sensible folk project from within a lodge, or have an astrally-perceiving ally guarding their physical form. If a projector’s body is killed, they will know immediately, and may be able to spend a few hours setting their affairs in order before their astral form falls apart.

Astral projectors can track their own body, if it’s moved, using Spot+Magic.

Noncorporeal snoops can be kept out of places by growing Awakened ivy, which is astrally active, on walls, or by using ritual magic to create wards. Nightclubs and concert arenas that host popular acts usually have some form of astral security to keep freeloaders out.

The magical world can impinge on the physical one. The most common way is the magical background count (Street Grimoire p30), which is the result of intense emotional, spiritual, or magical activity. These can manifest as mana ebbs (the overall absence of mana that affects everyone) and mana flows (where there is more mana, but it is aspected and interferes with your magic unless you are aligned with that aspect). Mana can take on aspects such as emotions, magical traditions, violence, pollution, and the qualities of nature— it’s easier to summon fire spirits in a volcano. Background counts can be manipulated through geomancy.

Background counts complicate any use of the Magic Edge. It is possible to become acclimated to a background count, learning to work around it, which usually takes about three weeks per level of background count. It takes longer if you’re a commuter and only spend part of your day in a particular domain. Most shadowrunners have already learned to deal with the astral funk of human misery in places like the Redmond Barrens. (Street Grimoire p31) Learning to deal with a mana ebb takes much longer (and access to a reliable mana ebb).

If you are aligned with a background count, a number of 0 dice equal to the background count’s level read as +, much like red and blue dice. The more + you get from the background count, the more the magic is apt to be different from what you were expecting.

If you are not acclimated to an unaligned background count, a number of 0 dice equal to the background count’s level read as -.

In any round in which a character uses their Magic Edge— even if they are simply astrally perceiving— in a Superb (5) and higher background count, they suffer an attack of (background count – 4) against their Focus, creating stun consequences.

Average (1)	Strong and brief magical, spiritual, or emotional impact; long-duration mild impact. e.g.: A small-town church, a bar frequented by the Awakened, the favorite trysting spot of a love affair, the site of an isolated violent crime, a week of high pollution. Just below the tropopause.
Fair (2)	Strong, brief impact felt by at least 50 people, such as a rock concert, or steady impact over years. e.g.: the magic department at a university, sold-out rock concerts, high security prisons, a garbage dump, a dense population living in misery. Just above the tropopause.
Good (3)	Any major battlefield less than a century old. Slashed-and-burned forest areas. Factory farms. Great mana lines and power sites. e.g.: the Nazca Geoglyphs, the Pyramids of Egypt.
Great (4)	Any place that a major battle is currently occurring. A heavily polluted area such as a strip mine or manure lagoon. Locations of mass death like the Chicago Shattergraves. Powerful mana lines and places with centuries of still-ongoing emotional significance. e.g.: Stonehenge, Sydney song line, Arlington Cemetary, Sistine Chapel, Notre Dame cathedral. Just below the stratopause.
Superb (5)	Toxic waste dumps and radioactive waste storage sites. The most powerful mana lines and events. e.g.: the Five Great Mountains of China; the Great Cairn line in Tír na nÓg, the blast sites of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Alamogordo (out to about 5km); the Native American Re-Education Center at Abilene. Take a blanket +1 to Edge or difficulties and modify the roll as Fair (i.e. 0 on the first two dice matter).
Fantastic (6)	e.g.: the Auschwitz concentration camp, the mysterious mana warp atop which Blackstone Prison was constructed (Shadows in Focus: Sioux Nation p9), the Aurora Borealis. Take a blanket +1 to Edge or difficulties and modify the roll as Great.
Epic (7)	This is mana warp territory, where magic is chaotic and unpredictable and cannot be acclimated or aligned to. e.g.: A 6km diameter region around the nuclear facility in the Saar-Lorraine-Luxemborg Special Administrative Zone (SOX), irradiated by the catastrophic Cattenom meltdown in 2009. Toxic mages tapping into this usually destroy themselves. Such phenomena can spin of foveae, invisible tornadoes of Good to Great background count. Take a blanket +2 to all Magic difficulties, and every 0 causes chaotic effects.
Legendary (8)	Ebbs of this scale are known as mana voids; magic simply doesn’t work here, and trying to use it is a fast route to madness and death. Outer space is a gigantic mana void, beginning at the mesopause.

Example: Archie the Academic is chased into the Redmond Barrens, with a Fair (2) misery background count, by a swarm of devil rats; his ivory-tower education did not include acclimation to such places. He jumps up on a dumpster and attempts to cast Disregard on himself to make himself functionally invisible. He rolls 0000, but due to the background count it is effectively --00.

An astral shallow is a place where the veil between the physical and astral worlds is so thin that even mundanes perceive astral forms. These are usually temporary, lasting a few hours or days. (Street Grimoire p28–9)

An astral rift is a place where any living person can experience astral perception and projection, and some allow direct projection to a specific metaplane without having to encounter the Dweller on the Threshold. An astral gateway is a controlled rift created by a spirit with the Astral Gateway power or magicians casting the Astral Gateway ritual.

A metaplanar rift (when controlled, a metaplanar gateway) allows physical transference to a metaplane. (Slip Streams p4) The process can include bizarre physical transformations that usually reverse themselves on return to Earth.

Geomancers distinguish between three kinds of mana lines (Parageology p3, 30):

• Dragon lines channel power aligned with the raw majesty of nature, and are unsuitable for magical operations requiring subtlety. Land along a dragon line tends to be full of abundant life, and the mana can affect the weather or temperature. Attempting to tinker with them using geomancy can cause earthquakes. The Mississippi River is a class 4 dragon line; there are numerous class 3 ones among Mounts Hood, Rainier, St. Helens, and Adams.
• Ley lines channel power between sites of intelligent activity, including panhuman or fey, and are usable for most magical operations. People living near an uninfluenced ley line are generally healthier, and those who live on one feel more energized and inspired. They are much more amenable to geomancy. The Great Cahokia Mound Web is a class 3 ley line complex.
• Song lines channel power between sites that resonate with other planes of existence. They do not resonate with the land or the people, and mana fluxes along them can create mana storms. The Nazca Geoglyphs are a web of class 4 song lines; the glyphs resonate with particular metaplanes (e.g.: the lizard with the Beastlands, the orcas with Water, the pelican wiht Air).

When congestion occurs on a mana line, the resulting mana ebb is called a sha event, and it can cause plants to grow poorly, bad luck, and toxic critters. A mana surge channeled through a mana line is a shen event and can cause spike baby critters to be born that would normally only be found in higher mana levels.

Initiatory rites deepen one’s connection to the magical world. It is possible to self-initiate without help, but it is easier in a group. (SR5 p325, Street Grimoire p138, Street Wyrd p127) Ordeals (Street Grimoire p140) do not map well to Fate milestone mechanics, but players are encouraged to roleplay them.

Initiatory groups (Street Grimoire p55, Street Magic p64, Magical Societies, Digital Grimoire) are, by the Bronze Rule, characters. They have the following aspects:

• Purpose: the reason the group exists.
• (optional) Patron: the group’s worldly backer.
• (optional) Mentor: the mentor spirit for the group.
• (optional) Society: the large-scale society to which this group belongs.

And the following skills:

• Connections: how well-connected the society is. This can augment your Schmooze when networking.
• Discipline: the higher the Discipline of the group, the more powerful the strictures imposed on its members, but you can use your group’s Discipline to augment your Focus when attempting to adhere to the strictures. Strictures can include (Street Grimoire p130):
  • Attendance: members need to show up for important, regular meetings, usually held every 1–3 months.
  • Belief: a philosophical or religious belief to which all members adhere. It should include at least three tangible rules that can be understood and followed. (It is possible to follow a belief stricture without believing it, but people become what they pretend to be...)
  • Consequences: breaking strictures leads to direct consequences, such as being branded with a letter on the forehead or a mark on the hand; elemental damage designed to leave scars; loss of Magic upgrades; or simply a quiet cerebrovascular incident.
  • Deed: all members must regularly do something to benefit the group or demonstrate loyalty. This usually entails from 3 hours to 1 week of work, every 1–3 months.
  • Dues: contributing to the group’s Resources is a binding magical commitment.
  • Exclusive Membership: joining any group outside the magical society breaks the stricture. A single society can have both public and secret circles.
  • Exclusive Ritual: ritual magic can only be performed with other members of the same society.
  • Fraternity: members must help other members when asked; it it not necessary to succeed, only to attempt aid.
  • Geas: members magically bind themselves to reflect the group’s purpose or belief, such as taking a vow of silence.
  • Obedience: lower-ranking members must obey orders from higher-ranking members, as long as such orders do not conflict with the other group strictures.
  • Service: members contribute at least 20 hours per month to the group, whether on quotdian or important tasks.
  • Secrecy: blabbing about the group breaks the stricture.

  Members of the same group can see the group bond in a fellow member’s aura, and whether it has been damaged through violation of the strictures (difficulty is Great (4) – number of strictures broken). A broken stricture is an astral injury and adds +1 to the Drain of all magical activities for each stricture broken, and +1 to the difficulty of group rituals in which they participate, until the member performs a ritual to sever their tie to the group, the group performs a ritual to expel the member, or the group performs a ritual accepting their atonement.

• Fame: the public profile of a group (or any society to which it belongs). This can augment Face and Prod when presenting yourself is a member of the group, such as a member of the Bear Doctors Society in a hospital.
• Resources: represents what you can get from the group and what you’re expected to contribute.
• Secrecy: how well the group keeps secrets. You can have Secrecy and Fame, in which case people know of the group while knowing little about it.

Initiatory groups are not constrained by skill columns like regular characters, and in particular the Fame and Secrecy skills can be raised or lowered through investigative journalism.

Mechanically, initiation is the use of an upgrade milestone for a character’s Magic Edge. For magicians, this always means learning advanced metamagical arts. For adepts, this can either be metamagic or progress toward more feats. Some metamagics are commonplace, and some are much more rare; an initiatory group can improve your chances of getting access to them.

• Absorption: (requires Shielding) When counterspelling a spell targeting you, every shift lowers the force of the effect and every two shifts create a boost you can use against Drain. (State of the Art: 2063 p43, Street Grimoire p151, Street Wyrd p122)
• Adept Centering: (adepts only) Use Rock+Magic (if performing) or Focus+Magic (if meditating) to create a Centered advantage that can be used to deal with challenging circumstances. (SR5 p325)
• Advanced Alchemy: (requires Fixation) Allows creation of preparations that give the user a temporary spell-like ability or critter power... or block one. (Street Grimoire p153, 218)
• Advanced Rites: removes penalties for differing traditions in ritual magic. Developed in the late 2070s. (Street Wyrd p124)
• Anchoring: (requires Quickening) Prepares a precast spell to activate when a trigger condition is met. Theorems are published in 2053. (Street Grimoire p152)
• Astral Infiltrator: (requires astral perception) Every time you slip through a ward using Sneak+Magic, you can drop its rating by your Magic; you can choose if it falls to 0 (which will alert its creator) or 1 (which won’t). (Forbidden Arcana p32)
• Astralnaut: (requires astral projection) When projecting into the astral plane or the metaplanes, you can leave your body for days instead of hours. (Forbidden Arcana p44, Street Wyrd p119)
• Bloodied Ground: (adepts only) subtract your Magic from the background count caused by violence. (Street Grimoire p159)
• Centering: Use Rock+Magic (if performing) or Focus+Magic (if meditating) to create a Centered advantage that can be used to offset Drain. (SR5 p325, Street Grimoire p154)
• Chakra Strike: (requires adept Nerve Strike): consequences inflicted using this technique negate as many points of Magic as half the size of the consequence slot. If you negate all of your opponent’s Magic, it is paralyzed. (Street Grimoire p158)
• Channeling: (requires conjuring) You can conjure spirits into your own body, using their powers as your own or allowing them to take over briefly. (Street Grimoire p148, Street Wyrd p121)
• Claws: (requires adept Keratin Control). You can grow your fingernails into + claws. (Street Grimoire p157)
• Cleansing: Temporarily neutralizes magical background count in the area. (Street Grimoire p154, Street Wyrd p117)
• Danger Sense: a magician who has already learned Divination can pick up the adept power on further initiation. (Street Grimoire p147)
• Divination: (requires astral perception) You can get hints about the future by performing the Augury and Sortilege ritual. (Street Grimoire p147, Street Wyrd p117)
• Durable Astral Form: allows allocating blue dice up to Magic from Heavy Hitter to one’s astral form. Not publicly taught until around 2080. (Street Wyrd p118)
• Efficient Ritual: As a ritual leader, you can complete rituals in half the time at the cost of +1 Drain for the participants. (Street Grimoire p153, Street Wyrd p124)
• Exorcism: (requires conjuring) Pulling spirits out of bodies they’re possessing. (Street Grimoire p148, Street Wyrd p121)
• Extended Masking: (requires Masking) Allows masking of quickened and anchored spells and astrally interesting items. (Street Grimoire p149, Street Wyrd p119)
• Filtering: (requires Cleansing) Constructs a temporary matrix that can filter a background count briefly before becoming clogged. (State of the Art: 2063 p43, 52)
• Fixation: (requires enchanting) spend a point of karma to make an alchemical preparation decay over days instead of hours. (SR5 p325)
• Flesh Sculptor: your use of the Shifting art can transform into larger or smaller creatures than normal. (Forbidden Arcana p37)
• Flexible Signature: (requires astral perception and Masking) you can alter your astral signature and disguise your aura, so your Magic is added to the difficulty of assensing your signature. You can also simply choose to have your signature fade faster than usual, as if your Magic were subtracted from the Force of your workings. (Street Grimoire p149)
• Flux: (requires Masking) You can start your aura fluctuating randomly, which scrambles your astral signature and any ritual magic trying to target you. (Street Grimoire p150)
• Geomancy: (requires astral perception) you have learned to evaluate and manipulate the flows of magic in the environment, whether through feng shui or freemasonic construction. (Street Grimoire p143)
• Harmonious Defense: (adepts only; requires astral perception) Spell defense for adepts. (Forbidden Arcana p46)
• Harmonious Reflection: (requires Harmonious Defense) Reflection for adepts. (Forbidden Arcana p46)
• Holy Ground: (adepts only) subtract your Magic from the background count caused by spiritual domains. (Street Grimoire p158)
• Home Advantage: requires Geomancy. When in the vicinity of a ley line aspected to your style of magic, you can use your Magic Edge as Street for Spot, Recon, and other checks involving an intuitive grasp of the territory. (Parageology p31)
• Invocation: (requires conjuring) Advanced conjuration techniques make it possible to conjure powerful Great Form spirits through ritual magic, and summon an Ally spirit to be a familiar. (Street Grimoire p147, Street Wyrd p122)
• Masking: you can alter your aura, making yourself appear mundane, or more or less magically powerful; if you have astral perception, you can even look like something completely different, such as a spirit (though you must be astrally perceiving or projecting in order to look like a materialized or astral spirit). The difficulty of penetrating your disguise is Con+Magic. Assensors must beat an additional threshold of your Magic in order to pierce your disguise (so if your Con+Magic is 4, it takes a 6 to discern bioware implants). You can also hide a number of stunts of foci up to your Magic. (Street Grimoire p149)
• Master Summoner: doubles the number of spirits you can control. Not public knowledge until circa 2080. (Street Wyrd p122)
• Necromancy: (requires astral perception) You have learned magics that deal with the dead; this metamagic is common among forensic thaumaturgists. (Street Grimoire p143)
• Patronage: requires Geomancy. When in the vicinity of a ley line aspected to your style of magic, you can use your Magic Edge as Street for social skills. (Parageology p31)
• Psychometry: (requires astral perception) You can read subtle information out of auras. (Street Grimoire p144, Street Wyrd p120)
• Quickening: (requires sorcery) you can spend karma up to the Force of a spell to sustain it directly from ambient mana. It resists dispelling with the amount of karma you spent. (Street Grimoire p152)
• Reflection: (requires Shielding) While astrally perceiving, you can deflect or reflect incoming spells. (Street Grimoire p151, Street Wyrd p123)
• Sensing: (requires astral perception) Learning to get a feel for the flow of mana without becoming astrally active. (Street Grimoire p155, Street Wyrd p120)
• Severing: (requires Shielding) detects the sending of ritual sorcery and offers the opportunity to disrupt it. (Street Wyrd p123)
• Shadow Touch: (requires adept Traceless Walk): you can avoid leaving fingerprints and have a chance to avoid triggering alchemical preparations that go off at a touch. (Street Grimoire p158)
• Shielding: your Magic counts double when providing spell defense. (SR5 p326)
• Skin Artist: (requires adept Melanin Control): you can form other natural pigments, either over your whole skin or as apparent tattoos. (Street Grimoire p157)
• Spell Jammer: (requires Shielding) You can interfere in spells before they’re cast, adding your Magic to the difficulty of a spellcast. (Forbidden Arcana p40)
• Spell Shaping: (requires sorcery) you can alter the shape of your area spells, either changing the radius or creating a safe pocket at the center. (SR5 p326)
• Spirit Hunter: (requires adept Killing Hands, or astral perception and either Focus+Magic or Hit+Magic 4) On a success with style in astral combat or banishing, a spirit cannot use any of their powers for a number of exchanges equal to your Magic. (Forbidden Arcana p41)
• Stillness of the Void: (adepts only) Entering deep meditation allows evasion of detection spells and ritual magic. (Street Grimoire p158)
• Sympathetic Linking: a sorcerer who has learned Psychometry can, on further initiation, learn to use ritual magic to target through sympathetic links (such as a favorite pen), instead of requiring a material link like hair. This has metaphysical similarity to the critter Search power. (Street Grimoire p144, Street Wyrd p124)

Outside the world measured by science are other worlds accessible by magic. They each operate according to their own rules. These are called the metaplanes, and beings summoned from them appear here as spirits; even the nature spirits who make their homes on this world have clear affinity for a particular metaplane. Defeating a spirit in astral combat merely disrupts it, and it can return in three to four weeks (resuming any contract or binding it had with a conjurer, though the conjurer may have ended that early to free up their limited number of such connections); destroying it requires killing it on its own metaplane.

A Free Spirit is one that has sunk deep roots into its metaplane, making it able to come and go from there as it pleases, and it must be defeated it its place of power on the metaplane, or by obtaining (perhaps reverse engineering) a copy of its spirit formula, sometimes referred to as a True Name.

One way to access the metaplanes is ritual magic performed by an initiated astral projector. This contacts a powerful spirit known as the Dweller on the Threshold, who sends everyone in the ritual circle into the metaplane they request... at the price of answering some questions that challenge the self-knowledge of each participant. The difficulty of the ritual is increased by the highest Chrome of the participants.

Another is to have a Free Spirit with the Astral Gateway power offer access to their home metaplane.

Rare explorers report that there is a way to travel the Astral Sea under your own power, but finding someone who will pass on the techniques is very difficult.

Time passes in unusual ways on the metaplanes; it is possible to experience great amounts of subjective time there while mere hours pass in the physical world.

Known nearby metaplanes include the planes of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Beasts, Plants, and Man. Practitioners of voudoun can reach Guinee, Asatruar can summon from and travel to the other eight of the Nine Worlds, and Qabalists call on angels from the ten Sephirot. Travelers report that their are overlaps, such as Múspellsheimr with the Metaplane of Fire.

Many people are unsure whether the spirits of the dead found in various seeming afterlives are genuine formerly-living humans or manifestations of the subconscious expectations of astral travelers; it does not help that there are three distinct mentor spirits each claiming to be the genuine Elvis, King of Rock’n’Roll. The metaplanar journeys involved are far too hazardous for academic expeditions. Traditions that call on ancestor spirits, however, have no such doubts.

There are more distant metaplanes, but the known magical traditions do not have rituals to summon spirits from such places.

Anyone performing magical workings needs a lodge that provides them with a space that is metaphysically aligned with them. Lodges take different forms in each tradition; a druid grove, medicine lodge, and wizard’s sanctum are all lodges. They take days to set up, and form a ward (which the lodge’s owner can control, making it a relatively safe place to leave their body during astral travel) once complete. Packing one up takes a whole day. The ritual implements, grimoires, art, etc. are valuable; the quality of your lodge is Scrounge + Magic. (SR5 p280)

You can create a temporary lodge by using up reagents. Spend take one box of wealth stress for each point of quality of the temporary lodge, and spend an hour setting it up; it will last until the sun next crosses the horizon. (SR5 p317)

A ritual team with Good (+3) Focus can create a temporary lodge through meditation, prayer, or other means of hallowing. For every magician-hour of meditation, the lodge gains one point of Force, up to twice the highest magician’s Focus+Magic. Once the hallowing is complete, the astral barrier appears, and persists until the next sunrise or sunset. (Forbidden Arcana p41)

All sentient beings (with the possible exception of dragons, who are rather cagy about talking magic theory) have a paradigm through which they interpret their perspective on the magical world. All approaches fall broadly into either left-brained approaches that emphasize logic and formulae or right-brained ones that emphasize intuition and art. In the West, these are broadly referred to as hermetic and shamanic approaches, but there are a vast number of them. The greater the difference between traditions, the harder it is to share knowledge: a Jewish qabalist and a Christian theurgist will easily be able to find common symbols, but that qabalist and a Taoist wuxing will have a lot more work coming up with a common frame of reference or collaborating in ritual magic.

• Logic-based traditions
  • The Western occult tradition, whose roots came through Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
    • Hermetic magic: traces primarily to the Emerald Tablet, but has clearly sampled from the Qabbalah, and uses the tarot for spirit contact and divination. Hermetic mages most easily contact the metaplanes of the four elements and Man, and call up spirits from the metaplanes rather than spirits of the place they’re in. The by my will, so mote it be! set have a reputation for arrogance and ordering spirits around. Fire spirits can help with combat spells, though any elemental can help with an attack spell from its element. Water spirits can help with healing and illusions. Air spirits help with divination and detection. Earth spirits help with arts that manipulate the physical world. The spirits of Man contacted through the major arcana each have their own specialties. (SR5 p279)
    • Qabbalism: the Jewish mystic tradition based on the Torah, Zohar, Sefer Yetzirah, and more. The summoned spirits possess living beings or animate prepared vessels. (Street Grimoire p48)
    • Christian Theurgy: a cousin to Hermetic magic with an emphasis on ritual purity and calling upon the archangels. It is practiced by the Catholic Order of St. Sylvester. The spirits they call on include ophanim that appear as wheels of fire with many eyes; cherubim that have four wings, four faces (man, lion, bull, eagle), the body of a lion, and the hooves of a bull; seraphim that appear as six-winged serpents. Some will show a shamanic mask of patron saints when wielding magic, or develop stigmata from powerful spellcasts. (Street Grimoire p44, Forbidden Arcana p63, Street Magic p36)
    • Hermetic Druidism: an offshoot of Hermetic tradition with an emphasis on Celtic symbolism. (Street Magic p38)
    • Gardnerian Wicca: an offshoot of Hermetic tradition with an emphasis on pagan symbolism. (Street Magic p42)
  • Islamic: the Islamic magical tradition comes through Sufism and the Mevlevi Order, and approaches mana as baraka. When they summon spirits at all (there is considerable theological argument about the propriety of this), they are djinn. (Street Grimoire p46; Street Magic p39; Runner Havens p132)
  • Hindu: Hindustani high magic (sometimes called Vishnuvite) has religious iconography but has formality like Hermetic practice. They summon asuras from the metaplanes. (Street Grimoire p46; Shadows of Asia p61, 208; Street Magic p38)
  • I have no idea where the Shadowrun authors are getting the term wujen from and have to wonder about the quality of the rest of the source material.
    Wuxing: the ancient Chinese shamanic tradition that evolved through Taoist sorcery into a more formal logic-based tradition. Wuxing itself is an underlying philosophy that informs external alchemy, internal alchemy, geomancy, divination, and martial arts. The practice involves magical writing, though a modern sorcerer may be drawing the sigils in glowing energies with a finger. Unusually for a logic-based tradition, they conjure nature spirits. Practitioners are often called wū shī (巫师, trad. 巫師). (Street Grimoire p51)
  • Onmyōdō: a Japanese tradition similar to wuxing.
  • Zoroastrianism: the original magi. Prayer, meditation, and mental focusing are important in the tradition, as well as purification through water and fire. The tradition produces more mystic adepts than most. They summon yazatas. (Street Grimoire p52)
  • Path of the Wheel: the tradition taught in Tír na nÓg, to guide elves down the Paths of the Warrior, Steward, Bard, Druid, and Rígh. Leaking information about the Paths is known to be hazardous to your health. Observers have noted that it calls on similar spirits as Hermetic magic and is highly formalized, and is at least as much about social control as advancing magic. (Street Grimoire p47)
• Intuition-based traditions
  • Shamanism: an umbrella term for a kaleidoscope of traditions centered around contact with the spirit world and wielding power in consonance with it. Shamans summon nature spirits from the world around them, rather than calling them out of the metaplanes. Most shamans have a mentor spirit, but some seem to be beset by many of them. (SR5 p279; Forbidden Arcana p73) In the German nature magic tradition, the mentor spirits are often idols, which some see as the manifestation an idea rather than a deity. e.g.: Creator (Wayland, Vulcan), Dragonslayer (Thor, Hercules), Great Mother (Gaia), Horned God (Pan, Cernunnos), Moon Maiden (Diana), Wild Huntsman (Odin, Bacchus). (The idols are approached through other mythoi as well: there is a group in Greektown in Detroit that follows them as the Greek gods.) (Street Magic p39) With Chinese shamanism, most of the effort in sharing knowledge is translating the language and cultural references.
  • Chaos Magic: a syncretic mishmosh that has a vaguely Hermetic feel but picks up bits and pieces from everywhere. They summon the same sorts of spirits as Hermetic mages, though Hermetics find their work lacking in formalism. Chaos Mages have a +1 bonus to understand other traditions, and everyone, including other Chaos Mages, have a +1 difficulty to understand the writings of Chaos Mages. Chaos Mages do have an advantage when designing and leading rituals where more than one tradition participates. (Street Grimoire p44, Street Magic p36)
  • Goddess Wicca: also called Eclectic Wicca. They share a symbolism with Gardnerian Wicca, but take an intuitive approach to it, and summon nature spirits like shamans. Some are so eclectic that they have little functional difference from Chaos Mages. (Street Grimoire p51)
  • Aztec: the tradition of the Aztec nahuālli (nagual is a more recent term), people with connection with the animal that shares a portion of their soul; all practitioners have a mentor spirit matching their shadow soul. While this is common within Aztechnology, there are many practitioners in the Aztlán hinterlands who have nothing to do with the megacorporation. (Street Grimoire p41)
  • Druid: The Celtic shamanic heritage, common from Tír na nÓg to continental Europe, mostly among humans and elves. They resemble shamanic tradition, though have different totems such as Boar, Bull, Horse, Serpent, and Stag. (Street Grimoire p45; Street Magic p38)
  • Shinto: the Japanese shamanic heritage. A kannushi rarely has a single mentor spirit, and instead seeks to live harmoniously with all the kami. They usually conjure local nature spirits, though they can reach kami in the metaplanes as well; kagura is Rock+Magic conjuring. (Street Grimoire p48)
  • Aboriginal: the native practice in Australia, whose practitioners are called koradji. (Shadow Spells p3)
  • Egyptian: a revival of ancient Egyptian religious practice, based on ancient papyri. This is a possession tradition, with spirits usually being summoned into wax figurines. (Shadow Spells p3)
  • Yoga: sometimes termed Shivaite, as Shiva is the lord of yoga. The best-known paths are Rāja yoga (pursuit of spiritual and mental transcendence), Hatha yoga (bhakti or illumination through physical self-control), and Tantric yoga (release of kundalini energy through control of the bodily chakras). Many yogi and yogini are adepts; tantra includes both right-hand and left-hand practitioners. (Shadows of Asia p62)
  • Buddhist: the Tibetan occult tradition, followed by historical figures such as Milarepa. It draws heavily on Vajrayāna tradition. Conjuration is of dharmapālas, wrathful deities that can be invoked for protection. (If you get technical, they’ll admit they’re conjuring emanations of the deities, but that’s no reason not to show the Force 1 emanation the respect you would the actual deity.) Mentor spirits include Kanzeon/Kuan Yin/Avalokiteśvara. Considerable argument occurs among practitioners about just how far you can take upāya. Spellcasting usually involves visualization of a yantra, mandala, and/or Tantric deity. (Street Grimoire p43, Forbidden Arcana p61, Buddhist Magic) Yantra tattooing has spread from Thailand as a form of qi focus design. Very few Buddhist magicians actually practice the ritual, but there are instructions in the Vinayavibhaṅga-padavyākhyāna to raise a vetāḍa— a walking corpse. (The Journal of the Pali Text Society 29: 313–30)
  • Black Magic: a cousin to Chaos Magic that is devoted to self-centered hedonism and power. They are fond of the Lesser Key of Solomon, particularly the Ars Goetia, when conjuring (those aren’t elementals, those are servitors of Satan [Fire], Belial [Earth], Lucifer [Air], and Leviathan [Water]), and often have demon princes as patrons (they would never use mentor to describe the connection). They believe far more in the reactions of people to the symbols they use than the symbols themselves. (Street Grimoire p41; Forbidden Arcana p60)
  • Dark Magic: an evolution of New Age Satanism, with individual pursuit of godhead with blasphemy and psychodrama as a means of focusing the will. (Dark Terrors p165)
  • Ásatrú: the Norse magical tradition includes galdr (sung or chanted incantations), seiðr (trance/spirit work), and hedgewitchery (herbs, stones, and healing). Runes are used in enchanting and divination. (Shadow Spells p5)
  • Romani: the ancient magical practices of the Romani people are closer to shamanism, though many use Tarot cards in divination. (Forbidden Arcana p90)
  • Missionist: the Protestant tradition that began with faith healing, which began in 2044 when a coalition spontaneously performed a ritual that fed all of Detroit’s homeless population for a day. In 2050 they are still in the early stages of figuring out their tradition, but have already gotten the art of Healing down, and other traditions are studying their use of Shaping that can transform organic garbage into nutritious food. (Forbidden Arcana p81)
  • Amazonian
  • African and diaspora traditions
    • Vodou: Servitors of the invisibles, the loa. This is a possession tradition, where spirits ride the summoner or an ally. There are many branches, including Haitian, Cuban, Dominican, and New Orleans. There is a schism in voudoun between the traditionalists who only work with the loa that have been known for generations, and those who deal with those that they find— they have no cognitive dissonance calling up Father Christmas with peppermint sticks and hot buttered rum. (Street Grimoire p50)
    • Santería: A cousin to Vodou that venerates the orishas, a blend of Yoruba deities with Roman Catholic saints. (Hard Targets p130)
    • Candomblé
    • Umbanda
    • Obeah: A cousin to Vodou and Santería that respects the loas and orishas but keeps them at arm’s length. (Hard Targets p129)
    • Rastafari: A possession tradition. (Digital Grimoire p4)
  • Psionic: Psionics think all of this magic stuff is just superstition. Sure, the astral plane and mana are objectively observable, but all that other stuff is just garbage floating up from the stew of the subconscious. They consider spirits to be constructs made of the summoner’s own thoughts, and the ones they create can possess a volunteer to be empowered. (Shadow Spells p5)

Many Awakened people form a connection to a powerful spirit that acts as teacher and taskmaster. Most shamans have a mentor spirit— often called a totem— but some take a more neutral stance. Most hermetic mages are leery of forming a personal connection with a spirit and prefer the formality of having them as patrons to a magical guild or society. (SR5 p320) Some practitioners are open about their mentor spirit and make the connection obvious through their garb, while others are close-mouthed about it; in the Native American Nations, it’s polite to wait for a shaman to volunteer information about their totem.

Mentor spirits tend to communicate through dreams, visions, hunches, inspiration, and real-world coincidences. The more logic-oriented magicians tend to seek them out in meditation or a dark mirror, while the intuitive ones are more likely to simply form an intention before taking a nap.

It is possible for an Awakened character to gain a mentor spirit if they lack one, through significant roleplaying. Changing mentor spirits is rare, and tends to occur through trauma or character growth that significantly changes a character’s self-understanding.

Mechanically, a connection to a mentor spirit is a character aspect. This can be part of the High Concept, like Hard-Partying Coyote Shaman, or a separate one, such as Challenges of the Djinn King of Mercury. Adepts with a mentor get one extra feat related to their mentor; magicians get an extra art. Physical mages get one or the other.

This is a sampling of mentor spirits known to the Sixth World:

• Animal mentors present as beasts.
  • Alligator: greedy, cranky, and lazy. Alligator teaches the Water art and the Killing Hands feat. Invoke for intimidation and water spirits; compel for singleminded pursuit of prey. (Hard Targets p137) (Howling Shadows p39)
  • Bat: a restless wanderer. Bat teaches the Sound art and the Motion Sense feat. Invoke for finding your way; compel to always be visiting different places and doing new things. (Hard Targets p137)
  • Bear: a healer and fierce protector. Bear teaches the Healing art and Rapid Healing feat. Invoke for healing, defense of patients, and resisting damage (not Drain); compel to disregard personal safety when wounded or protecting the injured. (SR5 p321)
  • Boar: territorial and aggressive. Boar teaches the Mana art and the Killing Hands feat. Invoke when protecting home ground; compel keep fighting until opponents are down or flee, even when outmatched. (Howling Shadows p41) (Tír na nÓg p148)
  • Cat: a sly guardian of mystic secrets. Cat teaches the Illusion art and the Light Body feat. Invoke for catlike grace and stealth; compel to toy with your opponents in combat (if you think you outclass them) or make the effort to take them down as fast as possible (if you think the fight might be fair). (SR5 p321)
  • Coyote: the consummate trickster and troublemaker. Coyote teaches the Illusion art and the Voice Control feat. Invoke and compel to indulge curiosity and play tricks. (SR3 p164) (SR6 p163)
  • Dog: a loyal friend and protector. Dog teaches the Mana art and the Borrowed Sense feat. Invoke for tracking, magicks of detection and warning; compel for stubborn loyalty, never leaving a comrade behind or betraying them, or allowing another to sacrifice themselves in your place. (SR5 p321)
  • Dolphin: a playful optimist, determined to make the world better. Dolphin teaches the art of Health and the Power Swimming feat. Invoke for swimming, piloting watercraft, and healing; compel to intervene when people are being bullied or the environment is being damaged. (Howling Shadows p43)
  • Dove: a messenger of peace and harmony. Dove teaches the art of Health and the Emotion Sense feat. Invoke for peacemaking, healing, and air spirits; compel to avoid combat and lethal force. (Forbidden Arcana p94)
  • Eagle: a defender of the purity of nature. Eagle teaches the art of Air and the Combat Sense feat. Invoke for keen perception, summoning spirits of the air, and defending nature. Compel for distrust of technology and its tools, and allergy to pollution. (SR5 p322)
  • Giraffe: followers of Giraffe see beyond the horizon. Giraffe teaches the art of Mana and the Astral Perception feat. Invoke for insight; compel for social awkwardness that comes from cutting through the small talk to focus on what’s really going on. (Howling Shadows p42)
  • Horse: the embodiment of freedom. Horse teaches the ??? art and the Power Running feat. Invoke for running and piloting ground craft; compel for the compulsive need to freely roam. (Howling Shadows p46)
  • Monkey: a playful trickster who delights in making sure that malign folk learn their lesson. Monkey teaches the art of Force and the Hang Time feat. Invoke for climbing and trickery; compel to avoid harming opponents caught flatfooted and to always be there to see a prank go off. (Hard Targets p137)
  • Oak: stalwart and silent. Oak teaches the art of Plant and the Stillness feat. Invoke for conjuring plant or air spirits (as appropriate to tradition) and resisting damage; compel to protect those you have agreed to defend, even unto death. Taking Oak as a mentor requires at least Fair (2) Bod. (Forbidden Arcana p99)
  • Plumed Serpent: usually connects to people of Central American heritage. Often known as Kukulkan or Quetzalcoatl, bringer of cacao to humanity. Plumed Serpent teaches the art of Wind and the Abundant Peace feat. Invoke for diplomacy, wisdom, and the magicks of wind; compel for responsibility, justice, and mercy. (Magic in the Shadows p159, Heroes for Hire p9)
  • Raccoon: an inquisitive thief. Raccoon teaches the Force art and the Borrowed Sense feat. Invoke for pilfering, filching, and trickery; compel to take an opportunity for theft. (Howling Shadows p46)
  • Rat: a sneak and scavenger. Rat teaches the art of Illusion and the Wildwalk feat. Invoke for stealth and scrounging reagents; compel to flee or seek cover in a fight, unless there is no other option. (SR5 p323)
  • Rat: the Rat from the Chinese zodiac is a creative problem-solver. (Forbidden Arcana p100)
  • Raven: a troublemaker, trickster, and transformer. Raven teaches the art of Shifting and the Facial Sculpt feat. Invoke for trickery; compel to exploit someone else’s misfortune to your own advantage or pull off a clever trick or prank even if it’s to the disadvantage of your friends. (SR5 p323)
  • Shark: a merciless hunter, always on the move. Shark teaches the Mana art and the Killing Hands feat. Invoke for unarmed combat and attack spells; compel to go berserk when taking a physical consequence in combat. (SR5 p323)
  • Snake: a wise counselor; seeker and keeper of secrets. (SR5 p324)
  • Spider: a manipulative trickster, often known as Anansi, Iktomi, or Spider Grandmother. Spider teaches the art of Shifting and the Suggestion feat. Invoke for (Forbidden Arcana p100)
  • Stag: a spirit of life, death, and rebirth. Stag teaches the art of Earth and the Light Body feat. Invoke for melee combat and summoning earth spirits; compel to duel anyone who disrespects them. (Forbidden Arcana p99)
  • Thunderbird: (SR5 p324)
  • Whale: Patient and loyal. Whale teaches the art of Water and the Metabolic Control feat. Invoke for swimming and diving, piloting watercraft, and conjuring water spirits; compel to always keep their word. (Howling Shadows p43)
  • Wolf: the North American view of Wolf. (SR5 p324)
  • Wolf: the European view of Wolf. (Forbidden Arcana p100)
• Icons are mentor spirits that tend to present in panhuman aspect, often as familiar deities, saints, and bodhisattvas. Note that most of these descriptions are shorthand used by panhumans to communicate with each other; anyone daring to ask Thor or Hercules if they are both manifestations of Dragonslayer will be giving a clear signal that they have too much time on their hands and they need a quest.
  • Adversary: Committed to overthrowing the cosmological order. In Aztlán, best known as Tezcatlipoca. Adversary teaches the art of Mana and the Smashing Blow feat. Invoke for demolition, counterspelling, and disenchanting; compel for hatred of authority, even wielded by allies. (Hard Targets p136)
  • Barqan, the djinn king of Mercury: a master of magic who sometimes shares his secrets with humans. Barqan teaches the art of Mana and the Magic Sense feat. Invoke and compel for the pursuit of magical knowledge and cleaving to virtue. While he is primarily a mentor to magicians in the Islamic tradition, he has been known to work with those of other traditions.
  • Berserker: Fighting for the love of fighting. Berserker teaches the art of Mana and the Killing Hands feat. Invoke for bravery, Physical attack magicks, and hardiness in battle; compel to have a short fuse and attempt to harm those who strongly disagree with you. (Street Grimoire p199)
  • Chaos: An inveterate shit-stirrer. Chaos teaches the art of Illusion and the Suggestion feat. Invoke for deception and trickery; compel to share gossip and liven things up when they get slow. (Street Grimoire p200)
  • Dark King: lord of the underworld and keeper of secrets. The Dark King teaches the Mind art and the Memory Palace feat (for memory is the only safe place to keep secrets). Invoke for intimidation; compel to pursue secrets. (Forbidden Arcana p98)
  • Death: Life is a temporary thing and the realms beyond hold no fear for the followers of Death. Death teaches the Mana art and the Killing Hands feat. Invoke to fathom the mysteries beyond death, from anatomy to necromancy; compel to ease the passing of the dying instead of taking heroic measures to keep them alive. (Forbidden Arcana p96)
  • Dispeller of Darkness: a teacher of the road to liberation. They demand discipline from their followers and offer no shortcuts. Those pursuing the rainbow body and dharmakāya for the sake of personal immortality do not last long, for letting go of the ego is an important part of the path. Buddhists see them as Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, or his consort Samantabhadrī. The Dispeller of Darkness teaches the art of Mana and the Astral Perception feat. Invoke and compel to follow and stay on the path.
  • Dragonslayer: a high-spirited hero who battles monsters and celebrates boisterously afterward; many know him as Hercules or Thor. Dragonslayer teaches the Mana art and the Danger Sense feat. (SR5 p321)
  • Ecstatic: transcendence is sought in ecstasy, including dancing, music, art, sex, and drugs. The Ecstatic, often met as Dionysus, teaches the art of Shifting, the Wildwalk feat, and sustainable behavior, for self-destruction is not their path. Invoke and compel to pursue ecstasy, even if it conflicts with your relationships and long-term obligations. (Magic in the Shadows p160)
  • Father Christmas: a conflation of the traditional figure, the more modern Santa Claus, and Nicholas, patron saint of thieves, Father Christmas is a maker of merriment and generous gift-giver, especially when the gift-giving is on someone else’s tab. Father Christmas teaches the Illusion art and the Emotion Sense feat. Invoke for redistribution of wealth; compel for generosity.
  • Fire-Bringer: a shaper and creator. Fire-Bringer teaches the Shaping art and the Deepsense feat. Invoke for artisanal work and alchemy; compel to aid anyone who sincerely asks for help. (SR5 p322)
  • Gambler: a rider on the currents of luck and a complement to Oracle. They are just as likely to use divination as the followers of Oracle, but they seek to gain insight into the next move, rather than convincing themselves that there is a knowable big picture. Gambler teaches the art of Mana and the Danger Sense feat. Invoke for magicks of insight and situations where luck is a large factor; compel to take a chance when there’s a potential big payoff. (Forbidden Arcana p95)
  • Great Mother: the personification of life-giving nature. She teaches the Healing art and the Empathic Healing feat. Invoke for operating in the wilderness and for healing magic; compel to fight corruption, whether environmental, social, political, or magical. (Forbidden Arcana p99)
  • Green Man: a spirit of the natural life cycle of plants. Green Man teaches the Plant art and the Empathic Healing feat. Invoke and compel to nurture and protect the natural world. (Forbidden Arcana p98)
  • Gunslinger: a grim, practical mentor who reminds some practitioners of Odin. Gunslinger is all about skill and precision, and disdains spray-and-pray tactics and explosions. Gunslinger teaches the art of Force and the Ballistic Dance feat (and their adepts can learn the Bullet Bender stunt). Invoke for precision; compel to act with honor right up to the moment their opponent proves honorless.
  • Horned Man: the embodiment of procreative power and energy, strongly in touch with animal instincts. The Horned Man teaches the art of Mana and the Borrowed Sense feat. Invoke for fighting and mastery of the wilderness; compel to never refuse a fight or seducer. (Magic in the Shadows p161)
  • King of Rock and Roll: one of the mentor spirits who appears as Elvis. Elvis teaches the Illusion art and the Enthralling Performance feat. Invoke for charismatic performance; compel to celebrate life, sometimes beyond the boundaries of good sense.
  • Mammon: the bottomless appetite for wealth. Mammon teaches the art of Mind and the Suggestion feat. Invoke and compel in the pursuit of wealth.
  • Moloch: power comes from sacrificing others, and sacrificing others is how you prove your power. Moloch teaches the art of Mana and the Emotion Sense feat. Invoke and compel in the pursuit of lethal leverage, including killing people simply to show that you can do it and get away with it.
  • Moon Maiden: the huntress with the crescent moon as her bow, mercurial and mysterious. Her appellation of maiden refers to her independence, not virginity. The Moon Maiden teaches the art of Force and the Wildwalk feat. Invoke for hunting, tracking, and liberation; compel to defy restrictions other than your own personal convictions and the laws of Nature. (Magic in the Shadows p161)
  • Oracle: pursues knowledge through mystic and mundane means. Oracle teaches the art of Mana and the Astral Perception feat. Invoke for arcane knowledge and information-gathering magicks; compel to pursue mysteries. When you initiate, your first metamagic must be Divination. (Street Grimoire p200)
  • Peacemaker: Always looking to find some way for people to get along, though sometimes a knock on the head may be required to open a mind. Peacemaker teaches the Mind art and the Emotion Sense. Invoke for diplomacy and peacemaking; compel to treat physical harm as a technique of last resort. (Street Grimoire p200)
  • Regarder of the World’s Cries: known to various Buddhist sects as Avalokiteśvara, Guanyin, Kanzeon, and Kannon. Kanzeon teaches the art of Healing and the Empathic Healing feat. In the Sixth World, she seems fond of expedient means and will not chide her followers for sending someone to their next incarnation if they were already committed to accumulating further evil karma, nor for relieving the rich of excess wealth. Invoke for magical and nonmagical healing; compel to aid those in need. (Better Than Bad p132, 139)
  • Seducer: the incarnation of desire, delighted to fan the flames of jealousy and greed; Buddhists know them as Devaputra-māra. Seducer teaches the Illusion art and the Animal Magnetism feat. Invoke for allure and illusions; compel to indulge in a pleasurable vice or indulgence, given the opportunity. (SR5 p323)
  • Sky Father: the masculine counterpart to the Great Mother. (Magic in the Shadows p162)
  • Tengu: Ancient Japanese spirits with an appetite for comeuppance. Some of them are Buddhist dharma protectors; others are unruly troublemakers; but they all have a certain relish for facilitating karmic feedback. Tengu teach the art of Wind and the Rapid Draw feat, as well as the practice of Shugendō.
  • War: Violence, pure and simple. War teaches the Mana art and the Killing Hands feat. Invoke to win fights; compel to do so by any means necessary. (Forbidden Arcana p97)
  • Wei Po-Yang: an ascended Taoist mystic. He teaches the art of Mana and the feat of Memory Palace.
  • Wise Warrior: (SR5 p324)
• Nature: the forces of nature seldom bother to take an easy form to talk to.
  • Abyss: the primal abyss that preceded the universe, sometimes seen as waters or chaos and void. Sometimes seen as Tiamat. Abyss seeks to hasten the return to the primal state, and proceeds directly to entropy without side trips into corruption. Abyss teaches the art of Mana and the Adept Accident feat. Invoke for intimidation and destruction; compel to be obsessed with destruction and never benefit from teamwork or leadership bonuses. (Forbidden Arcana p97)
  • Moon: subtle and changeable. Moon teaches the art of Illusion and the Stillness feat. Invoke for negotiation, illusions, and transformations; compel to avoid direct confrontation. (Forbidden Arcana p98)
  • Mountain: strength and stubbornness. Mountain teaches the Earth art and the Metabolic Control feat. Invoke for wilderness survival and counterspelling; compel to be dependent on plans. (SR5 p322)
  • Sea: moody and fickle, and jealous of her treasures. Sea teaches the Water art and Power Swimming feat. Invoke for swimming, water magicks and summoning; compel to hoard unique treasures and be generous with common goods. (SR5 p323)
  • Sun: warm, benevolent, honest, and a fierce destroyer of corruption. Sun teaches the Light art and the Metabolic Control feat. Invoke and compel for honor, honesty, integrity, seeing well outside during the day, and the magicks of light and fire. (Forbidden Arcana p98)

Spirits are sapient beings that lack physical form, though those with the Materialize power can fake it very convincingly.

Watcher Spirits

(SR5 p298) A projection of the summoner’s consciousness, formed into a short-lived spirit through a brief ritual. A watcher can assense, engage in astral combat, manifest to visibility, and use the critter Search power. Its problem-solving ability is sapient, but it lacks ego and is not worried about its upcoming dissolution. Its combat skills are equal to its Force and noncombat skills to half its Force, rounded up. It can speak any language that the ritual participants can speak, and thus can translate with skill equal to half its Force.

Ally Spirits

(Street Grimoire p200, 195, 197) Initiates can create a long-term bond to a spirit as servant, partner, teacher, or conscience. Sometimes this is a familiar spirit found on a metaplanar quest or introduced by a mentor spirit, sometimes a created tulpa or servitor.

Ally Spirit (1): this is a variant of the Extra Action stunt that gives you a new Edge named Ally. Ally acts like Magic, but for the spirit. When you buy the stunt, the Edge is at +0 and effectively one upgrade; spend two upgrades and it’s +1, three more and it’s +2, etc. Each upgrade can buy another power for your ally. Your ally has a High Concept like Fun-Loving Feline Familiar, Raven-Sent Spirit Guide, or Precision-Engineered Homunculus, and a Complication like Neverending Curiosity, Inveterate Prankster, or Trophy Collector.

Ally powers start with:

• Astral Form, Banishing Resistance, Sapience, and Sense Link.
• They can use any sorcerous or enchanting abilities that their partner knows; they have one spell or recipe at the start.
• It can aid sorcery, alchemy, or study.
• One of Inhabitation, Materialization, or Possession.
• An ally can depart to its native plane at any time, but can only return when conjured by its partner.

With each upgrade, they can learn any power appropriate to their spirit type (e.g. an elemental spirit can learn Engulf), and one spell or alchemical recipe. Upgrades represent ritual magic, and during upgrades, or when their partner is rendered unconscious in combat, a mistreated ally can attempt to go free at such a time, rolling your Focus+Ally against your Prod+Magic; if they can beat your roll, they go free, and may become a free spirit. You lose the stunt (gaining a point of refresh), and lose all upgrades spent on your ally.

An ally with Inhabitation can move into any prepared vessel. Sometimes this is a living animal, sometimes a construct. Making a feral creature into an ally is challenging, as it is not going to cooperate with the ritual preparations. Making a pet into an ally by crafting an ally formula to match its personality, or conjuring an existing spirit into an unborn or unhatched creature, avoids resistance. The ally is now Dual-Natured and cannot astrally project, but they have Immunity to Normal Weapons and can learn Aura Masking if their partner has the Masking metamagic. The vessel will age normally until the body’s age matches their partner’s (or will not age until the partner catches up to the vessel); once they are synced up, they will age together proportionally; if the magician expires of old age, their ally’s mortal form expires and the spirit returns to astral form and either departs to its metaplane or becomes a free spirit. If the ally’s vessel is killed or destroyed, they return to their metaplane can be conjured into a new one with ritual magic as long as their formula has not been lost. An inhabiting ally can move to a new vessel during an upgrade; if the vessel is living, they resume aging normally.

An ally with Materialization has at least one form, defined by a piece of original artwork (such as a painting or sculpture) or a model. (Many magicians have the ally as a double, which can be handy when creating alibis.) They can learn a new form, or wardrobe for an existing form (new outfits equal to Scrounge+Ally), at each upgrade milestone. (An ally with panhuman form usually starts with a number of outfits equal to Scrounge+Ally; they can materialize without it and then put on other clothing, but they can’t take that clothing with them when they dematerialize.) Even if Movement is not available to their spirit type, they can learn a version that empowers them appropriate to their form (so an ally with a horse form can run as fast as a horse, and one with a motorcycle form can ride as fast as one).

An ally with Possession can inhabit a being or object by rolling Focus+Ally against the Focus+Magic of the being or the object resistance of the object. On success, the ally is in charge of meat and mechanism but not mind or infotech. An enchanter can roll Make+Magic against object resistance to prepare an object for inhabitation, creating an advantage for the spirit to tag. Possession of an object only allows the object to perform actions that it could normally (clay changing shape counts), though spending an upgrade on the Animation power will allow an ally to make that sword fight on its own. If an ally has inhabited a vessel previously and nothing has been done to change that vessel’s metaphysical state, it does not need to roll again to return to the vessel (so it can jump out of your runesword into your rune-marked Harley-Davidson without a hassle). Consequences incurred while in a vessel persist with the spirit when it exits the vessel. A possessed melee weapon bypasses Immunity to Normal Weapons just like a weapon focus, and a street samurai wielding a possessed katana can be big trouble for a spirit.

Free Spirits

(Street Grimoire p202) When spirits go uncontrolled, they are usually on the same time limit from when they were summoned, and must depart at dawn or dusk. Most will depart immediately, either merging with their domain or returning to their home metaplane. Some will use the remainder of their time pursuing their own agenda, which might be revenge on their summoner. A few form a metaphysical connection to the world and can come and go from the metaplanes as they please; they are called free spirits. Generally this happens with spirits of at least Good (3) Force.

Every free spirit’s unique, fundamental nature can be described by a spirit formula. Such a formula must be assensed to be fully understood; spamming a copy out over the Matrix might make it a little easier for people to obtain the true formula. Such a formula is metaphysical in nature, and the spirit is aware of the location of all copies, unless they are behind a ward more powerful than their Force. At least one formula must exist in the world for the spirit to come and go freely (Street Wyrd p57–8); spirits can show up when a magical area is strongly congruent to a metaplane, such as a forest fire or volcano caldera allowing salamanders through, but such spirits usually need to stay in a friendly environment. Possession of a formula allows a spirit to be summoned, controlled, or banished; even a mundane can control a free spirit through their formula. Destroying a copy of a spirit’s formula and then beating their Force with your Focus+Magic prevents it from ever returning to this world, even if other copies exist; it is not clear to the banisher if this test was successful. For spirits that suffer from Evanescence, permanent banishing sends them so far, so fast that they are shredded and the spirit is destroyed. Destroying spirits from nearer metaplanes requires entering their metaplane and slaying them in their place of power.

A spirit’s formula can be obtained through:

• Finding or making a copy. A formula has a distinctive astral signature (Good (3) Recon+Magic to notice) and making a copy can require days to weeks of work. (Street Wyrd p57: when a spirit goes free, its name can be implanted on a nearby object or even person. Spirits will relocate this as soon as possible.)
• Metaplanar quest. Figuring out a spirit’s metaplane is Fair (2) Recon+Magic if observing the spirit directly or Fantastic (6) Recon+Magic if observing their signature. A quest into the spirit’s home metaplane to learn their formula is usually harrowing, and etches the formula into the magician’s mind. They can then copy it out on return to their body.
• Design formula. Making a Fantastic (6) Recon+Magic test when directly assensing a spirit is enough to design a formula matching their nature; this requires a Brains+Magic or Rock+Magic roll to overcome the spirit’s Force.

Free spirits can learn new powers over time; they can learn both Materialization and Possession. Unlike mortals, spirits cannot gain karma directly; some can steal it directly if they have the rare Energy Drain (Karma) power, but most need to have it donated through a ritual in which a copy of their formula is present, or through a pact.

Pacts

Some free spirits can enter into pacts with mortals, establishing a metaphysical connection with them. They are usually only able to enter into one or two types of pact; it is possible to negotiate terms of behavior within the pact, but not terms of the metaphysical effect. Pacts are always aspects; long-term pacts are character aspects. Some sample pacts: (Street Grimoire p137)

• Drain: The spirit channels mana to the mortal, helping them resist drain. You can tag your pact aspect to reduce drain; when you spend karma on your pact aspect, it counts double.
• Dream: when the mortal sleeps, the spirit has use of their body, and gains all karma earned by acting through the mortal’s body. The mortal wakes refreshed, even though their body never slept, but they have no recollection of events.
• Formula: the mortal gains the power of Immunity to Age and becomes a living copy of the spirit’s formula. No other copy of the formula works as long as the mortal lives.
• Heart: the spirit and the mortal share their understanding of each other’s respective worlds; an alien spirit that would normally be at penalties to use Heart with panhumans has none, and the mortal gains a matching understanding of what it means to be a spirit, particularly a denizen of the spirit’s metaplane. For Street purposes, they are sharing immersions.
• Life: the mortal may clear a physical consequence by spending karma equal to the size of the consequence.
• Power: a pact that only lasts 24 hours (usually elapsing at dawn, dusk, noon, or midnight). For the duration, the mortal can use one of the spirit’s powers that are not tied to the spirit’s form (e.g.: Materialization), and the spirit can use one of the mortal’s powers (such as a spell or an adept feat). The pact can be renewed an arbitrary number of times, as long as the mortal make it worth the spirit’s while. Spirits with the Regeneration power can earn a lot of karma this way.

A spirit and mortal with a pact can be used as sympathetic links to each other for purposes of ritual magic. Ending a pact without killing at least one participant is extremely difficult.

The process of learning to use one’s Awakened abilities involves getting in tune with one’s own aural template. This means that you take stress from extreme strains on the body, such as highly invasive surgery and extended intense drug use. Consequences for this stress can include geasa that limit your usage of your abilities, or even loss of an ability entirely.

Magical folk tend to be, well, superstitious about risking magic loss. Here are things that have never been observed under controlled circumstances to cause it, even though some will eschew any or all of these because they’ve heard of it happening to someone in proximity to magic loss:

• ink tattoos, even full body ones; alchemists can do a brisk business making tattoo inks for nervous Awakened folks
• Moderate sized genetattoos
• LASIK eye surgery (but many magicians wear glasses or contacts rather than get it)
• modern painkillers like ibuprofen (many magicians only use aspirin, or even drink willowbark tea)
• Doing a line of novacoke
• Getting drunk on alcohol
• A full-body CAT scan’s radiation dosage (1 rem)
• A course of well targeted antibiotics
• Having a burst appendix removed through endoscopic surgery
• Minor biosculpting
• Treatments to turn white fat into brown fat

Things that have been reliably observed to do it, though not always:

• Major surgery or equivalent physical trauma
• Moderate biosculpting, on the order of changing apparent ethnicity or changing physical gender for disguise purposes (gender confirmation modifies the body to match the astral form and carries little risk; practically none if a trained medical assensor is assisting)
• A course of chemotherapy
• Alcoholism sufficient to cause cirrhosis of the liver
• Heavy metal poisoning
• A 400 rem radiation dosage received in a short time period (this will kill 50% of people within 60 days without treatment)

Things that are not conclusive, but may push a stressed system over the edge:

• A course of broad spectrum antibiotics (such as will kill off all your gut flora and give you the runs)
• A novacoke-fueled binge weekend
• A full sleeve genetattoo

From a game mechanics perspective, taking a geas or losing a point of magic is an Extreme physical consequence.